Humanitarian sources say up to 150 shells fell in the
Torit area yesterday. Torit is one of a handful of
government-held towns in eastern Equatoria. The firing
came as part of a rebel Sudan People's Liberation Army
(SPLA) offensive. An SPLA spokesman told AP that his
movement had recently attacked Torit and Liria, both
to the southeast of the key garrison town of Juba.
The spokesman also claimed that 40 government troops
were killed on an attack by the SPLA on "Mile
38" south of Juba. Sources in touch with the area
say government aerial bombardments of the wider Torit
area have been going on for some time. On the northeastern
front, a press release received by IRIN from the Sudan
Alliance Forces claimed an attack on Haskaneet, southwest
of Gallabat on the Ethiopian border, on September 13,
leaving 15 militia dead.

Northern state "devastated"

The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent
Societies said in a statement today (Tuesday) that
a 1,000 kilometre stretch along the Nile in Sudan's
Northern state is flooded. The Federation regards malaria
as being a "major killer" and announced the
delivery of insecticide and sprayers in a shipment
of humanitarian relief flown to Khartoum from the Spanish
Red Cross yesterday.

Forgotten "lost boys" need special help, agency
says

Thousands of the former "lost boys of Sudan,"
most now in their 20s, remain in the Kakuma refugee
camp in northern Kenya, stigmatised by their own peoples
and in need of special assistance, US-based Refugees
International has said. The refugees were among the
10,500 unaccompanied children who reached Kakuma in
May 1992 after having spent months walking from their
closed Ethiopian camps through southern Sudan, in treacherous
and hostile conditions. While the unique circumstances
of the boys had drawn the attention of the world six
years ago, they are now, as young men, in danger of
being forgotten, Refugees International said in a report
received by IRIN.

Because the young men had grown up without families,
had undergone military training as children and were
segregated at Kakuma, they are now vulnerable to forced
conscription by the SPLA and are ill-equipped for integrating
into their Dinka or Nuer communities that treat them
as outcasts, the report said. Refugees International
recommends that a portion of these young refugees be
considered for third-country resettlement.

DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO: Rebels defeat attack on
Goma

Goma was relatively calm today after rebel forces yesterday
repulsed an early-morning attack on the town by hundreds
of fighters comprising Mayi-Mayi warriors, Hutu Interahamwe
militia and ex-FAR, news organisations and humanitarian
sources reported. Rebel military commander Jean-Pierre
Ondekane said the fighters, who allegedly came down
from Masisi, attacked Goma's airport and radio station,
adding that their main target was Gisenyi across the
border in Rwanda. Rebel forces killed about 100 fighters
and captured 200 others, while the remainder fled back
towards Masisi, according to news agencies.

Information on civilian casualties was not immediately
available. Ondekane did not specify whether DRC government
troops were involved in the attack, but Reuters quoted
DRC Information Minister Didier Mumengi in Kinshasa
as saying that the Mayi-Mayi were fighting on the side
of the government. Mumengi also claimed on state television
that government forces had taken Kibumba just north
of Goma.

SADC summit ends inconclusively

The Southern African Development Community (SADC) annual
summit in Mauritius, attended by leaders of 14 African
countries including the DRC, ended yesterday without
making any significant progress on ending the conflict,
news agencies reported. The summit's final communique
"recognized the legitimacy" of the military
intervention of Angola, Zimbabwe and Namibia on the
side of President Laurent-Desire Kabila, but it did
not condemn SADC non-members Rwanda and Uganda for
any "aggression" against the DRC, AFP reported.
Envoys from Rwanda and Uganda, meanwhile, reaffirmed
their position that Kabila's continued refusal to negotiate
directly with the rebels was making peace impossible.

Banyamulenge facing "extermination"

A South Kivu-based party, Les forces republicaines et
federalistes (FRF), has warned that Congolese Tutsis
are threatened with "extermination" by the
on-going civil war in the DRC. In a statement received
by IRIN today, the FRF said Kabila had incited the
country's population against the Banyamulenge, leading
to the killing of many Congolese Tutsis, including
civilians, in Kinshasa, Kisangani, Katanga and South
Kivu. The FRF also accused the international community
of abandoning the Congolese Tutsis to their fate.

Human rights group appeals for tolerance

Meanwhile, a Lubumbashi-based human rights coalition,
while denouncing the "foreign aggression"
against the DRC, has called on the Congolese people
not to give in to xenophobic sentiments in the current
crisis. La Concertation des associations de defense
des droits de l'homme du Katanga (CADHOK), in a statement
received by IRIN today, urged the DRC government to
proceed with the repatriation of detained Rwandans
under humane conditions and to extend the work of an
inter-ministerial commission for the protection of
Congolese Tutsis. The CADHOK statement also critised
the "absence of concrete measures" by the
UN Security Council in response to the current crisis
in the DRC.

DRC-RWANDA: Gisenyi attacked

Rwandan Vice-President and Defense Minister Paul Kagame
has accused DRC President Kabila of being behind yesterday's
attack on Gisenyi and Goma by Hutu militia, the Rwanda
News Agency reported. Speaking to journalists in Kigali
today, Kagame was reported as saying that the DRC government
had trained and equipped the Hutu fighters but that
the Rwandan army had repulsed their attack on Gisenyi.
Rwanda "will not sit by and watch while Congo
destabilises us," Kagame said.

KENYA: MPs petition government on NGOs

Twelve Muslim MPs asked the Kenyan government to reconsider
the de-registration of sixteen NGOs operating in Kenya.
The mainly Muslim NGOs have been asked to stop activities
and some expatriate officials have been given seven
days to leave. Some other NGOs have protested that
the actions by the NGO Coordination Board did not follow
due procedure, local newspapers report. The Kenyan
Supreme Council of Muslims (SUPKEM) called a meeting
of imams and other Muslim leaders today to plan further
action. The NGOs came under suspicion after the huge
bomb blast at the US Embassy in Nairobi last month.

UGANDA: Bomb warnings close embassies

Several foreign missions in the Ugandan capital Kampala
remained closed yesterday (Monday), thanks to bomb
threats, the official 'New Vision' and independent
'Monitor' report. Embassies or high commisions of the
USA, UK, Denmark, and other countries and institutions
remained closed due to a spate of bomb threats, the
paper said.

Nairobi, 15 August 1998, 14:30 GMT

[ENDS]

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